MOSCOW, December 6 (Sputnik) — Ukraine's Naftogaz energy company has paid $378 million to Russia for deliveries of 1 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, the company said in a press release.
"Naftogaz Ukraine has transferred $378 million to [Russia's energy giant] Gazprom in prepayment for deliveries of 1 billion cubic meters of gas," the statement released late on Friday said.
In June, Moscow switched Ukraine to a prepayment system of gas deliveries over Kiev's $5.3 billion gas debt. Ukraine has since been receiving gas through reverse flows from a number of European nations and relying on its own reserves.
In late October, Ukraine, Russia and the European Union reached an interim deal on the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine until March 2015. The agreement also stipulated that Kiev must pay Russia a total of $3.1 billion by the end of 2014 in order to cover part of its outstanding debt. In November, Naftogaz transferred the first $1.45 billion tranche of the debt to Russia's Gazprom.
